Dec. 28, 2012

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Behavior specialist Christina Green, right, helps Rachelle this month in the bathroom, which also serves as storage at Ferncliff's Yonkers campus. The school for people with severe developmental disabilities is caught in a dispute. / Photos by Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News

Ferncliff Manor's Yonkers campus is over capacity and features students being educated in trailers. / Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News

Ferncliff Manor is caught in a political dispute over what should be done with the former WestHELP shelter in Greenburgh. Due to limited space, some rooms have four beds at the Yonkers campus. / Carucha L. Meuse/ The Journal News

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YONKERS — Tucked away on a hill overlooking Saw Mill River Road, Ferncliff Manor’s makeshift campus is brimming with people as educators try to accommodate a student body diagnosed with severe developmental disabilities.

The school serves a population of 66 children and young adults suffering from a host of medical problems, including traumatic brain injuries, neurological disorders, autism and cerebral palsy — conditions that require highly specialized care.

In Ferncliff’s main building you’ll find bedrooms outfitted with twin beds, a spacing problem that frequently stirs trouble between residents with behavioral problems. Many of the rooms are lined with protective padding to prevent “headbangers” from hurting themselves, and damaging the aging walls.

Some students at the school celebrated the holiday season in a series of conjoined trailers, which were intended to be used temporarily but instead have served as classrooms since the 1980s.

Inside one of the cramped modulars, a team of educators recently watched as a boy sat on the floor and aggressively played with a string of red beads, a sensory pleasure he had earned after a successful day’s work. His fellow classmates were scattered around the room, learning basic life skills with the hope of establishing some semblance of a daily routine.

School officials say the campus in Yonkers, which has served as Ferncliff’s home since 1958, continues to suffer from a lack of basic amenities, including proper classrooms and a gymnasium, and has relied on exemptions from the state to remain open.

“We’ve tried everything to find a new place,” said Pat Saich, who has run Ferncliff with her husband for more than 40 years. “I can’t even tell you how long we’ve been looking. Then we heard about this homeless shelter in Greenburgh.”

During their most recent search for a new location, school officials applied to lease the former WestHELP complex after the town of Greenburgh solicited proposals for the Westchester County-owned site.

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Ferncliff has offered to pay $500,000 a year in rent — contingent on the school being reimbursed by the state — about $140,000 more than the highest bid offered to the town by competing affordable-housing providers.

The school wants to use the existing administration building and raze the property’s 108 units, which have deteriorated under the town’s watch since the complex closed last year.

While the Westchester Board of Legislators is not obligated to help Ferncliff find a site, board members have pursued alternative locations for the school, including a parcel near Westchester Medical Center.

Ferncliff officials and parents, however, have maintained a preference for WestHELP throughout the process, thrusting themselves into a political dispute over the future of the vacant shelter.

“This is by far the best location for the school in Westchester,” said Liz MacDonald, whose son is a residential student at Ferncliff. “I would hate to see them not be able to find a suitable place in the county and have to move somewhere else.”

The debate now features representatives at various levels of local and state government, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who helped secure the construction of the WestHELP complex more than two decades ago.

Ferncliff’s proposed 50-year lease is supported by County Executive Rob Astorino and county Legislator Michael Smith, R-Greenburgh, who has strong ties to the nearby Mayfair-Knollwood neighborhood, where some people have historically opposed affordable housing at WestHELP.

The deal needs approval from the Westchester Board of Legislators, but also hinges on whether Cuomo will sign off on destroying housing he helped establish without any plan to replace the units.

Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner has spent months trying to solicit support from the county board, and said he is confident there are now enough votes to approve a deal with Ferncliff.

The Democratic-led county board had repeatedly refused to allow Ferncliff to relocate to the site. It expressed a desire to have WestHELP remain an option for affordable housing as stipulated in its agreement with Greenburgh, which controls the complex through 2031 if it rents the apartments.

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Recently, however, some Democratic legislators said they would approve leasing the site to the school as long as the state guarantees a deal with Ferncliff.

Matthew Richter, a spokesman for the county board’s Republicans, said an informal straw poll taken this month indicated that 14 of 17 board members support a lease with Ferncliff.

Town Board members met last week with Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, who chairs the Children and Families Committee, to discuss whether Ferncliff’s proposed rent payment is feasible.

“The state agencies involved in this understand the absolute necessity for Ferncliff’s move,” Paulin said. “I want to see the school get this site and, if not, to know sooner rather than later.”

Paulin said Ferncliff is being permitted to move through the state’s approval process without a definite location, and she expects to hear back about a decision sometime in January.

Greenburgh officials asked the Cuomo administration earlier this month for a $10 million guarantee that would allow the demolition of the WestHELP housing units so Ferncliff could build its residential campus on the property. Feiner said the town is still waiting for a response, but has chosen to move forward with the school’s offer after consulting with Paulin.

Matt Wing, a Cuomo spokesman, said the governor was waiting for Ferncliff’s proposal. He declined to comment on whether Cuomo supported keeping the affordable housing that was part of the original deal, saying “we are going to have (state) agencies look at it in a timely manner.”